MR. ED IS DEAD!

I am very late for as a rule I try to get this on by 6:00 am. I have been running upside down the last few days. But I swear I truly am getting my sh--t together. The weather looks great from my vantage point at the computer. Come on Spring, lets hurry it up.

We managed a Motel several years ago. It's called the Capri. A grand old lady in her time as she was built in the fifties and was built next to a wooded area. I love that old motel and still do. There was fifty rooms and we usually stayed full or close to it. There was a man who came out usually once a month and stayed a couple of days. There was a bar downstairs and the restaurant off the lobby which was open then too. He would come out, bring along a few bottles of Vodka, go to the bar, eat upstairs and stay pretty sloshed then go back home to his wife. Who by the way thought he was going to the VA Hospital every month. All the housekeeping girls and maintenance man called him Mr. Ed. He had a hole in his throat because of cancer.

Mr. Ed came for his monthly visit. It was about 8:30 am. All the housekeeping girls had gotten started for the day. I was standing behind the desk doing paper work. The door leading to the balcony flew open and there stood Ronnie. He was doing Maintenance for us back then. His eyes large, his face pale, he hollered the words that filled the Restaurant. All of the people who were eating there at the time dropped their forks. "Mr. Ed is dead!" I looked up from my work. My hands flying to my face, "Mr. Ed is dead?" I screamed. Ronnie's head nodded yes as if the words he had spoken were the only words he had to say.

I dropped my pencil and ran through the back office, out the back door over to our apartment. Steve was fast asleep. I grabbed his arm. "Mr. Ed is dead," I screamed. He jumped to his feet. Shock on his face. "Mr.Ed is dead," he parroted my words. I nodded my head as if I like Ronnie had no other words to say. He slept in sweats. He ran out the door, through he back door of the office and through the lobby. Everyone in the restaurant who had stopped eating anyway at the news, watched him as he ran. Out the balcony door to room 204. Mr. Ed's room, the late Mr. Ed.

All of housekeeping, Ronnie and few others were gathered around the door which was only partially open and they were all eager to tell the story. All at once. Amy one of the housekeepers was training a new woman., named Sandy. She was cleaning 206 and gave the woman the keys to 204 to change Mr. Eds towels. Sandy knocked, no answer. Amy coming out to the cart told her just to go on in. She tried. The door would open so far then close back. Amy came over and she would shove hard and then the door would close back. Ronnie came along. "Ronnie," Amy asked, "Would you please open this door it seems to be hanging up on something. Ronnie gave it a shove, open, close back. He gave a big shove and a arm fell over on the floor. The door would not open because a body lay against it. Mr. Ed. The late Mr. Ed. Poor Mr' Ed if he had not been dead already all the banging he was forced to endure would have finished him off.

Steve as gently as he could pushed the door open. He got in, the door shut back. Just him and Mr. Ed. Steve said he apologized to him for all the craziness going on. And then he called the police. He told them he had a dead body in Room 204. They needed to send someone fast. The woman told him to take his pulse, maybe he really wasn't dead. Steve assured he was very dead, no mistakes on that theory. So there was Steve stuck in the room with poor Mr. Ed. He didn't want to bother the body again. He needed a smoke. Someone suggested he smoke one of Mr. Eds. "Oh no," he insisted. "I don't want to make him mad.

So finally the police come. Natural causes. But for awhile there it played just like a comedy show on Television. Of course I do not mean to speak lightly of the dead. Because we all know it wasn't funny to Mr. Ed. But I must confess its hard to tell the story with out smiling at the thought of us all running around yelling. "Mr. Ed is dead." You know I often wondered how mad his wife was when she found out he never went to the VA all those months, only to a local motel. Men can really be shady, can't they?